Tag Archives: British America

In 1585, explorer John White traveled to Roanoke Island, and made a map and other drawings of the island. In 1587, a colony of 116 English settlers landed on Roanoke Island, led by White.

He left the island for England for more supplies but couldn’t return again until 1590 because of the war between England and Spain.

When he came back, the colony was gone — lost in the wilds of a young America.

Now experts from the First Colony Foundation and the British Museum in London have taken a fresh look at White’s 425-year-old map (the “Virginea Pars” map of Virginia and North Carolina has been owned by the British Museum since 1866) and uncovered a tantalizing clue about the fate of “the Lost Colony,” the settlers who disappeared from North Carolina’s Roanoke Island in the late 16th century.